B.C. housing: Gov’t gives communities $51M

The B.C. government is allocating $51 million to local governments to support them in meeting new provincial housing development requirements.

Announced Wednesday, the province says the grant-based funding will help municipalities create more housing, including transit-orientated developments and small-scale, multi-unit housing. All local governments, including regional districts and the Islands Trust, are eligible for the funding.

“There is an urgent need for more homes for people, and we are working with local governments to build this housing faster,” said Ravi Kahlon, minister of housing.

“With new housing actions to build homes in our communities, it is important that we support local governments to improve the processes to get the housing built that people in our community desperately need. By providing them with upfront funding, instead of distributing it over time, local governments will be able to support the building of more housing as quickly as possible,” he continued.

B.C. explains that local governments can use the allocated funding for updating housing needs reports, zoning bylaws, development cost charge and amenity cost charge bylaws, to hire staff and consultants for community plans, and for research and community engagement.

“This funding will be especially beneficial for smaller local governments that may have fewer resources to make changes,” the province said in a release Wednesday.

The funding announcement comes after the BC NDP passed a series of legislation to increase the development of more homes across the province.

In December, Premier David Eby claimed the government’s ambitious homebuilding agenda could result in up to 293,000 new housing units over the next decade.

The government’s housing bills restrict short-term rentals, provide more density on single-family lots, relax restrictive building permitting processes, and increase housing density in public transit areas.